Love To Hear
by just giddy
Summary: Oliver is reflecting about Katie while she lays knocked out in a hospital bed and then the rolls are reversed in 2nd chap. former oneshot...jeez, don't you people know i'm terrible at summaries by now?
1. Chapter 1

**I know, I know, ANOTHER one-shot. Who knew these things were so much fun to write? Don't worry, I already have the next chap for LAAB (life as a bell, I was just too lazy to type it…) but I was bored and had to write something while I waited for the reviews to come in. AND it's in third person. Gasp- I know, but I think I got a lot better at it. so here ya goes!**

Oliver Wood sat in what to him was a very uncomfortable fold-up chair in a very sterile hospital wing. It was a few days until Christmas Eve and normally he would be sneaking out to Hogsmeade, running around not doing some last minute Christmas shopping but _all_ his last minute Christmas shopping. But instead he was sitting in a rigid chair and watching the steady breathing of his chaser laying on the hospital bed in front of him.

Who knew that a stray bludger in practice would not her out for a solid week?

He sighed and ran his hands through his perpetually-messy hair, watching the steady breathing of his long time chaser and friend. Oliver smiled to himself as he thought about how mad Katie would be when she woke up. He knew he hated the hospital wing more than anything else. Laying in ironed-to-perfection sheets for a week would drive her up the wall and she would rant for ages, telling them that they could've left her in her own bed, that'd she be better off that way considering her fear of the hospital wing.

As Katie's brow began to furrow, Oliver found that his was mimicking hers. He was starting to wonder if she would ever wake up which, quite frankly, scared him. If Katie didn't wake up soon, he wouldn't need the help of Professor Treawely to tell him that practices would be torture.

Katie was very much the glue to the team. Sure, he was the captain and sure, she was two years younger than him-but she managed to make his job easier. She could handle Alicia during down practices when her mouth used her vast vocabulary of cuss words to it's fullest extent and she could keep Angelina awake through his team meetings where he rambled for god knows how long. Actually, she was probably the one who held out the longest during those meetings. But Katie could also keep Fred and George in check without them realizing but diverting their attention and she was also able to calm Oliver himself when 'the chips are down'.

Yup, practice was definitely going to hell without her.

Oliver gave her sleeping form a small smile as he pushed hair back off her face. He stared at her hair and realized, that just like it, he couldn't decide whether it was a deep golden blonde or a light brown. His eyes wandered over her knocked out face and had an extreme urge to run his fingers over the bridge of her nose and play connect-the-dots with the sun freckles that where scattered there from millions of practices. He smiled faintly as he held her hand and was not surprised at all to find that they were callousy and worn hard.

He glanced out the window over the nightstand next to her cot and his smile held as he saw bits of snow tumbling down in the early morning light. And as that morning light cascaded through the window, Oliver came to the conclusion that the fifth year's hair was indeed a dark blonde. His smile grew at how he always told her that she wasn't doing the blonde stereotype any favors and he had to stop himself from laughing as he could mentally hear her telling him that he wasn't doing the jock stereotype any favors either.

Letting go of her hand, he rubbed his face with both hands, calculating the time he had spent in the hospital wing. Last night he couldn't sleep and wandered down here before light had even started to streak the sky outside. He tried to get some rest, he really did. But the past week he hadn't been able to catch any decent shut eye. Oliver supposed that it was because one of his chasers were lying in the hospital bed with a bump the size of a bludger on the side of her head.

The seventh year dropped his hands away from his face and let them sit in his lap. But this has happened before. The whole team had spent their share of time in the hospital wing. Alicia had to spend two weeks in there when she broke her jaw last year but he remembered sleeping just fine then. Looking back at the sixteen year old laying in front of him, he wondered if the bump on her head was truly the source of his lack of sleep.

As this was their fourth year together on the team and as friends, he knew almost everything about Katie. Katherine Ann Bell was outgoing, outspoken, and out stubborn with a very large splash of sarcasm. She had a wonderful tendency to make people smile and laugh without trying while her own was contagious.

But like every other person on the planet, she had her faults. Like he said, she was stubborn. If she didn't want to go to practice-which was rare in it's own retrospect-Oliver would half to physically carry her 5'7" athletic frame down to the pitch. Oliver knew that the best way to get her to do something was to challenge her. He would challenge her day after day on the pitch and she would rise to it with pure stubbornness and a drive to prove him wrong-which she was now doing on a daily occurrence.

Katie also had her old habits, which Oliver knew too well, that die hard. The day or two before a match she would bite her nails down to stumps and if anyone even hinted that she was nervous one of two things would happen: 1. She would smile it off and say 'no way' and 2: she would bite and snap your head off for thinking such a thing. Her quills were also stumps. She had this thing of mistaking all quills as sugar quills. If you looked over at her during class or when she was doing homework, Oliver would bet money that she was gnawing her quill away.

Oliver smiled thinking of her habits and couldn't forget how she could debate anything. Katie used the drive she had in Quidditch to prove him wrong on anything-even if she knew he was right. She would rant for hours, saying how it is logically possible for purple hippogriffs to use spoons and have a nice sit down tea party wearing top hats. Oliver knew she knew she was wrong, but her stubbornness would never allow her to admit it until the fight was forgotten a month later and she would suck it up and say she was wrong.

He gazed back out the window and stared at the rays of sunshine that were just creeping their way up in the sky through the small flurries.

"…mercy Mary, mother of God…"

Oliver snapped his head forward to see Katie awake and mumbling. She was sitting up, propping herself on one hand as the other rubbed her face.

"What in the name of Merlin hit me?" she asked Oliver, her hair redefining the word 'bed head'. "A chest?"

"Katesie," Oliver said happily as he stood up and engulfed her in a hug.

"You know I hate that name," Katie mumbled at the nickname the twins teased her with since five years back, somewhere under his hug, "And I didn't mean that kind, captain," she said, managing to just place a hand on his chest.

Oliver laughed before letting her go and pushing her back against the pile of pillows behind her.

"You know I would fight back if I wasn't starving beyond all belief?" she asked as she let him force her back against them. "Right?" Oliver nodded before he sat back down in his too-rigid, fold-up-visitor's chair. "How long was I out for?" she asked, running a hand through her tangled hair and wincing as it past over the knot on the side of her head.

"A week to the day," he sighed, "Practice has been hell."

"You've been having dawn practices without me," Katie smirked, leaning towards him a bit, "Oooooh, 'Lic couldn't keep a hold of her mouth, hmm?"

"Up until yesterday I thought there were only 7 curse words," he said, trying to relax in his chair, "Now I know that there are in fact 13."

Katie's green eyes danced as she laughed, "Yeah, Alicia tends to bring out the best of situations."

"George thinks so," Oliver laughed before adding more seriously, "Did you know they were together and-you know…_snogging_?"

"Oliver," Katie laughed, "you say it's like it's a crime."

"Well did you?"

Katie bit her bottom lip in her funky-teal-hospital pajamas as her brow began to furrow. After four years Oliver knew that Katie was a terrible liar. She could make up a great story to go with a lie but she could never deliver it face to face.

"So how long?" he sighed.

"2 months," Katie smiled faintly, relieved that she wouldn't even have to attempt telling a lie. "So remind me how I ended up in here and why you couldn't just dump me in my dorm instead of bringing me in here?" she said, her nose scrunching up in displeasure as she looked around the hospital wing.

Oliver smiled at her before telling her about how Fred had accidentally hit a bludger and miss guided it to the side of her head, how he knew that she would be mad about the hospital wing but said it was for the best, how he carried her up here in his arms while Angelina kept a warm compress against her head, and how miserable practices have been without her.

He would've loved to tell her that she was causing him sleepless nights and that even with her old faults that he knew would never go away he was starting to realize something more may come out of a four year friendship. He wanted to tell her he wanted things to work out like that and that he didn't care if he was graduating at the end of the year.

He'd love her to hear these things instead of the meaningless stuff she missed while she was out cold for a week.

He'd love to hear her say the same instead of just smiling her usual contagious smile and making him smile back without even trying.

**Hmmmmmmmmm, yes, I think I'm on the fence about this one-all my stuff can't be great. It was totally different from how I started but I think it turned out decent enough….maybe. I think I might even turn it into a few-chapters-long story. And I'm not to sure about the ending either. I dunno, you tell me and drop me a review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yeah, I decided to continue this. But whether it bombs or not is a completely different story.**

Katherine Ann Bell was about to go hog-wild insane. She was about to rip her hair out, punch a wall and any other irrational action she could've taken at that second. Number one: she hated-HATED-the hospital wing with a passion. And sure, she was only a visitor, but she still hated it. Just standing in it mad her jumpy and irritable. Number two: she really couldn't understand the concept of her captain motionless in a hospital bed.

Well, he wasn't _completely_ motionless now that she thought of it. He was breathing steadily and that was all jolly and good but that didn't take the bandage (wrapped around his chest underneath his pajamas) off. And he was still knocked out cold. So breathing was good, just not _that_ good.

She sighed to herself as she made an attempt to stretch out. An attempt. Sitting in a way-too-rigid hospital chair for nearly five hours hadn't done her back any wonders and it was a tad hard to stretch properly seeing as she was too lazy and too tired to stand up and actually stretch the right way. Breathing still wasn't _that _good.

_But it's better than before _she added mentally. Three days ago steady breathing like this would've had her dancing. Three days ago Oliver Alban Wood's breathing was short and labored. She sighed again as she folded her arms on the bed in front of her and rested her chin there.

Bludgers were really damaging to their team this year. _Well, they have always been damaging…_she though, _but they've been really laying it on thick lately. _Katie mentally scolded herself-shaking he head-as she gave personalities to the dangerous things. But she knew she was right. First it was Harry at the beginning of the year, then herself right before Christmas, and now Oliver right before February break. She recalled what Fred said yesterday-how somebody must've cursed the things-and wondered if it really could be true. She shook her head vigorously a second time for thinking another insane thing.

She sighed again as she looked at her three-year captain and four-year friend. Oliver looked like he was sleeping peacefully even though a bludger had collided with his rib cage just three days back. Sure, he broke three ribs, but it was the twenty foot fall that had really done him in and knocked him out. Her brow furrowed at him. She had always picture Oliver as this great being of strength, never ill, always ready to schedule and extra practice and practically invincible. Maybe this was why she was disheveled to see him in a hospital bed. Or maybe it was because quite frankly she was sick and tired of _just _being teammates, _just_ captain and chaser, _just_ friends.

She shook he head for a third time before settling it back down on her arms. Angelina and Alicia have been saying for years that they were simply meant to be with each other. But Everytime they said that Katie would always reply 'we're just on the same team' or 'he's just my captain' or 'he's just a close friend'. She was sick of those 'just's. In fact, she knew for a fact that she was sick and tired of them. She knew for a fact that she was ten times happier fooling around with Oliver more than anybody else, she knew that everytime he smiled at her at practice when she did something just right it made her insides swell, she knew that when he laughed it was normally with her and that she had put it there.

Once again she let out a long sigh as she sat back up and rubbed her face hard. She also knew that all the knowing in the world got you absolutely no where if you did nothing with it. She looked out the dark window and wished that the stars would stop winking at her. She didn't see them shining beautifully, she saw them taunting her. Like they were trying to convince her that everything was alright when they weren't. Oliver would be leaving at the end of the year, never to come back, to venture out into the real world while she still had two more years in school.

Katie glanced at her watch that she wore on her right wrist: 9:57 pm. She smiled at the face of her watch. At first she wasn't sure why until she could mentally hear Oliver teasing her for wearing her watch on the wrong wrist. She almost rebutted aloud with 'it's not wrong the wrong wrist, it's the right'. She knew her childish comeback always got a good laugh out of Oliver-even if it was stupid.

Oliver was good like that. Well, he was good in a lot of ways, but specifically he laughed with her a lot. It seemed like he just found her funny. Sometimes his laugh would catch her off guard because she didn't think she said anything particularly funny. Maybe a snide comment here, a little sarcasm there, and even a bout of stubbornness from her could get him going and half the time she didn't understand why. She didn't think she had any supernatural powers that made people laugh…she stopped herself from even letting her brain travel down that track and thinking more insane things.

Looking around the hated hospital wing, she was aching to busy herself. She had left her potions homework up in the tower so she couldn't even get that done. Not that she would've gotten any credit for it at all if she handed it in. she was dreadful at potions and the whole castle knew it. Angelina and Alicia used to tease her relentlessly when they found out earlier last year that Oliver had been spending countless hours tutoring her and trying to get her to understand it since she was a third year. But she had been paying him back this whole time, turns out Hogwarts' favorite keeper had a terribly large weak spot in Herbology-a subject that most everyone got an 'Outstanding' on.

Katie reached over and pushed back his always-messy hair off his face even though it bounced right back. Oliver could be much more brilliant in classes…if he wanted to be. Everyone swore that if he put as much time into academics as he did athletics he would be the top of his seventh year class-even higher than Diggory. But Oliver was relentless-most would say obsessed-when it came to Quidditch.

_Oh he's a nazi alright,_ she thought to herself with a faint smile, just _one _of their dawn practice from three days ago still fresh in her memory. Quidditch fixation was just one-but his biggest-fault. He would push them and push them everyday at practice and dawn practices were becoming a daily occurrence. His drive to win the cup was like nothing Katie or the school had ever seen. Katie couldn't remember it ever being more forceful. But he made up for it. Occasionally he would bring out a thermos of hot chocolate for them-especially now with the harsh weather-and after a good practice he could never be happier. She could almost hearing him say 'great practice Kat,' using his only name for her. Well, almost only name-'BELL!' came up a lot too when he was in a bad mood after a horrendous practice.

She startled herself as she realized her hand had come to rest on his cheek and she quickly withdrew it. If 'just friends' was going to keep what they had going, she would do it damn it, she decided as she rested her head in her hand. And she almost slapped herself when she realized that she was smiling simply at the fact that the hand that had just touched his cheek was now cradling hers, and in essence-their cheeks were touching. She quickly rested her had in her other hand-she was going to keep her promise to herself

Katie often wondered if stubbornness like this is what kept them _just friends. _she knew she had faults, more than she should. She bite her quills and her nails, she could get irritable about silly things like the color orange (it just got her mad for an unexplained reason), she was forever stubborn, sarcasm was her second language and she was proud to say she could pull off being 'one of the guys' (she was accustomed to ignoring many 'good manners' (ex. Burping was a contest for her and Oliver)). She thought the last one is the one that lead her to this. Being a tomboy most of her life and being a chaser only helped her in that aspect. Now she wore a little makeup and took more than two seconds to do her hair and make sure her uniform was on the right way before rushing to classes. Once she got all dolled up for a Hogsmeade weekend-because Angelina and Alicia had more or less tied her to a post until she agreed- and Oliver had just gaped at her. Like she another wanna-be girl. That was another promise she held to herself-do not let Angelina and Alicia ever doll her up again.

She sighed for what must've been the thousandth time that night and even though it was against her better judgment, she reached over and grabbed his hand. Oh but she did have self restraint, their hands were specifically cupped and not laced. She convinced herself that this was perfectly expectable. She smiled to herself, already knowing that he had the same hard and calloused hands as she did-Oliver teased her about having man hands and she couldn't really deny it and there for that was the one thing she didn't have a snappy comeback to. She would just laugh with him. She folded her other arm across the edge of his bed and rested her head there and eventually drifted off.

She woke up a while later and checked her watch in the dim lighting of the hospital wing: 12 am. She cursed to herself and was about to drag herself out of the hospital wing and up to bed when she realized that her hand was now laced with Oliver's. She sat up startled but didn't move her hand away. She furrowed her brow and wondered if she had moved around in her sleep. She looked around and everything else was the way she left it, perplexed she furrowed her brow even more at Oliver's sleeping form. _Or at least he's supposed to be asleep…_she shook her head again. Of course he was still knocked out-he had been for several days. She must've just moved in her sleep, but then why did their hands fit so perfectly with each other?

She scrunched her nose at her own stupidity before smiling fainly, leaving her hand as is and deciding to enjoy it, for it surely would never happen again. She looked out the dark window. The stars were still taunting her.

**I loved that last line. I dunno why, it was just so…good. I tried to write more and realized that I killed that ending line so I re-shortened it by half a page and kept that good ending. Kinda sad, I know, but still good. Or atleast I think so. I've got it! Why don't you leave me a review and tell me if I was right or wrong! Gasp! What a great idea!**

**I know…over dramatized enthusiasm and mock shock. I know. lol**


	3. Chapter 3

**okz guys. it's me here, you know, the author. i just thought i was going to let you all know that i did a semi-sequel to this. i really loved it and i thought it deserved to be more than a chapter so i made it a one shot. it's long and incorporates things that you've read in this so i'm almost 100 percent positive that you guys are going to like it. it's called Finally Hearing (just go to my profile and click! (gasp!it's so simple!)) and so i guess it is more of a sequel than i thought. i worked hard on it and it would totally make my day if you guyus read it and droppped me a review!**

**lot 'o' love**

**giddyupgal**


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